Machine Pullover

How to do the Machine Pullover

1. 1Set the seat so your shoulders line up with the machine's pivot, then sit with your back against the pad.
2. 2Reach up and take the bar with your arms overhead.
3. 3Pull your arms down in an arc until your hands reach your waist.
4. 4Let the bar rise back slowly until your arms are overhead and your lats are stretched.

Muscles worked

Common mistakes

• Bending the arms to pull — keep the elbow angle steady so the lats move the bar, not the triceps.
• Seat at the wrong height — if the bar path cramps your shoulders or stops short, the pivot is not lined up with them.
• Cutting the stretch — the overhead position is what the machine is for; let your arms go fully up each rep.

Where it fits in a workout

Use it after rows and pulldowns as extra lat work.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Logging the Machine Pullover in SetGrip

SetGrip logs the Machine Pullover as weight and reps; log the stack or plate setting you use.

Variations and alternatives

When to talk to someone

• Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
• Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
• Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

More exercises

• All back exercises
• All lats exercises
• All machine exercises
• Machine lats exercises
• Decline Barbell Pullover
• Flat Bench Barbell Pullover
• Dumbbell Pullover
• Bench Lengthwise Dumbbell Pullover
• Stability Ball Dumbbell Pullover
• Stability Ball Hip Extension Dumbbell Pullover

Sources

1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.